3-2-1 Contact
About This Episode
We remember a groundbreaking PBS series that captivated young minds by exploring science, technology, and the wonders of the natural world. From its catchy theme song to its mystery segments, the series inspired countless kids to ask questions, seek answers, and embrace the excitement of discovery. Join us as we reminisce about the origin, impact, and legacy of 3-2-1 Contact!
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Show Notes
- The Making of 3-2-1 Contact » joanganzcooneycenter.org/2021/08/26/s-is-for-science/
- Watch Episodes from 1980 » www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9vpEzfAbupWL8byt2gybiTgQfUn28J9B
- ‘3-2-1 Contact’: The Best 1980s PBS Show That Taught Kids About Math, Science, and Technology » bit.ly/42wSjse
- Remembering 3-2-1 Contact : The Retro Network » bit.ly/3EaWxeZ
- About 3-2-1 Contact » bit.ly/4ho9ArE
- List of All 3-2-1 Contact Episodes » bit.ly/4hf5m66
- Email the show » podcast@genxgrownup.com
- Visit us on YouTube » GenXGrownUp.com/yt
TRANSCRIPT
Speaker | Transcript |
Jon | Welcome back, GenX Grown Up podcast listener to this backtrack edition of the GenX Grown Up podcast. I am John. Joining me as always, of course, is George. Hey, man. |
George | Hey, how’s it going, guys? |
Jon | Good, it would not be a show without Mo. Hey, Mo. |
Mo | Hey, how’s it going? |
Jon | Going good. In this episode, we’re remembering a groundbreaking PBS series that captivated young minds by exploring science, technology, and the wonders of the natural world. From its catchy theme song to its mystery segments, the series inspired countless kids to ask questions, seek answers, and embrace the excitement of discovery. I hope you will join us as we reminisce about the origin, impact, and legacy of 3-2-1 Contact. |
Jon | Now, for some people, they’re going, oh yeah, that show, because it’s not like Sesame Street. You kind of, maybe, like everybody saw Sesame Street, but I think if you saw 321 Contact, you’re like, oh, I saw 321 Contact, is it? |
Mo | yeah |
George | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. ah We’re gonna get into that first though. It’s time for some fourth listener email. The three of us are here. We’ll probably listen. If anybody else does, you our you are our fourth listener. |
Jon | And our fourth listener for this episode is Jeffrey S, one of our patrons. And he actually dropped us a line on Patreon about the Dukes of Hazzard backtrack. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | That one is still getting email, but still getting messages. |
Mo | So, geez. |
Jon | Yep. um Here’s what Jeffrey has to say. Hi, I know it might be an older show, but I just finished listening to the Dukes of Hazzard backtrack and used to love that show. |
Jon | Yeah, we did too. |
Mo | is |
Jon | I remember it was appointment television because it was on Fridays and I believe it was on prior to The Incredible Hulk and Dallas. Hmm, that sounds right. |
Mo | so Sounds right. |
Jon | Yeah, um it fits. |
Mo | It could be, could be. well |
Jon | Certainly good. Yep. He says, I really liked the show, even though I was born and raised in New York city, Mo. |
Mo | Oh. |
Jon | ah The weird part about the show was they seem to have jumped the shark numerous times. It doesn’t mean literally. It doesn’t mean literally. |
George | Oh, I was going to say. |
Jon | Here’s what he’s saying. They might’ve done that too. I don’t know. He says there was an episode where people thought Bo and Luke had died in their car and Cooter painted the car to make it glow like a ghost. |
George | Right. |
Jon | And even an episode where aliens from another planet visited Hazard County as well. |
George | Oh, wow. |
Jon | I don’t remember that one. |
George | I don’t remember that one either. |
Jon | Really? |
Mo | I don’t remember that one. |
Jon | No, okay, I’m not gonna… |
George | Now I kind of want to go watch it though. |
Mo | I gotta find it, right? |
Jon | I know, I need to see. Yep. Because I want to say, despite these and others, I think my friends and I liked this show before we were into Fast Muscle Cars and of course Daisy, who by the way, kind of reprised her type of role starring in Cannonball Run 2, which also, coincidentally, before it also starred |
Mo | Oh, yeah. |
George | Hmm. Yep. |
Mo | ye |
Jon | which is also coincidentally before it also starred the great Burt Reynolds, who played Boss Hogg in the Dukes movie. So yeah, so kind of a kind of a ah ah seven six degrees of Kevin Bacon thing going on around the Dukes there with ah the stars at… |
George | That’s right, yeah. |
Mo | Full circle. |
George | Six degrees of boss hogs making. |
Jon | Boss Hogg. |
Jon | Anyway, it wraps it up saying, love the show. Thanks, Jeffrey. ah We appreciate it, Jeffrey. We love that you, it doesn’t matter how old it is. Fire off an email if you hear an old episode. I know some people write us and they’re like, we’re binging, we’re going through the back catalog. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | And I’m just impressed with the tenacity it takes. Because what are we? This is the 183rd backtrack, but that means there’s pushing 400 episodes, including specials and everything. |
George | Mm hmm. |
George | It’s got to be close to 400 because of this. |
Jon | that’s |
Mo | Yeah, it’s going to be close. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Mm-hmm, that’s a lot. And so that’s diligence and we’re impressed. So no episode is too old to write in about. Most of us remember part of those episodes despite our age. So we love we love that you listen and enjoy it. |
Mo | Parts. |
Jon | Thank you, Jeffrey, for dropping us a line. You did that on Patreon. ah Fourth Lister, if you’d like your email featured here on the show, it’s drop. dead easy. Just hit us up on Patreon if you’re a member over there or hit us up via email at podcast at Gen X grown up calm. Read all of them every single one and eventually most of them will make the show just like Jeffrey’s. Okay, that good business in the rearview mirror. Let’s jump into talking about 321 contact after this quick break. |
Jon | Now, we were just talking about like recognition of three to one contact, like you mentioned it to somebody who did watch it. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | They go, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You might not remember it solid, but when you hear it, something about it. |
George | Mmm. |
Jon | So I’m going to start this episode actually going around at each of us. What is your experience of familiarity with the show? Because we each have a little bit different. I’m going to start with you, George. What do you remember of the show? |
Jon | How much did you watch it? |
George | ah The show would have come out when I was nine years old. In 1980, I was born in 71, so it was right in the wheelhouse of me being a prime candidate for its audience, I think, based on ah what I remember of the show and then rewatching some episodes in preparation for this podcast. ah I loved it. It was arguably way more enjoyable for me than Sesame Street and Electric Company combined. |
George | i I really enjoyed not only the format, but learning about the different science and nature stuff that they would show on every episode. ah The hosts were always funny. I know we’re going to talk more about that stuff later, but I just really liked the show and I looked forward to it as part of my after school ah |
Jon | Right. |
George | afternoon noon before mom and dad would get home, part of my routine way more than anything else I watched until some a few other things like Thunder the Barbarian came on and some other Thundercats, that kind of stuff. |
Jon | Okay. |
George | But before all of that, this was ah the jewel in my afternoon TV crown for sure. |
Jon | Yeah, I watched it a ton for my part. ah Like you, it was an after school ritual. I would watch it, you know, get home from school and whatever you could do to postpone homework, I was on board. And this was always on right after school. |
Jon | And it was five days a week. And it was often we’ll talk about later, it was kind of serialized both in its content and also in its segments. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | And I remember, you know, these days, like you watch a good documentary or something about history and you go, man, I wish school had taught it like this because I would have been really ener energized about it. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | And I like science. I loved science as a kid. But when I watched 321 Contact, I’m like, it’s even more fun than I thought. They really made all these science |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | ah experiments and concepts and and theories. Fun to talk about because you’re talking about it with these kind of hip kids that are there. ah And yeah, it was, I definitely liked it more than Sesame Street. |
Jon | Sesame Street was nice. But this was like, major brain work. It made you feel like you’re learning something. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | It felt cool. Now, Mo, how about you? I think you might be the least familiar with the show, right? |
Mo | Oh, yeah. um Because, you know, as the elder statesman of Jennix growing up, um hey I was like right at the edge, I think, of there. I was 13 when this came out. |
George | Right. |
Mo | So I think I was like outside that that whole thing. |
Jon | Okay. |
Mo | I was in junior high school at that point. |
Jon | You about to age out. |
Mo | So I i remember like I know that the show existed and I remember. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Jon | Okay. |
Mo | maybe every now and then catching a couple episodes but and we really um when I watched them again like recently again to prepare for the show watched a few episodes like none of it sparked like oh yeah like it was none of that it was like I was watching it and like we’ll get into it but it was it was very interesting but yeah no I didn’t have that like you know like oh my god the nostalgia feel when I watched it |
Jon | Oh, no, really. Yeah. |
Jon | No, that’s too bad. Cause I definitely did. You know, I had watched an episode probably in 30, 40 years. And then I put this, it was a bunch of them on YouTube. I’m sure Mo will throw some links to the to the, some of the YouTube stuff. |
Mo | Oh yeah. |
Jon | And I just, I started like seeing the same kids over and I’m like, Oh my God. Oh my God. I forgot about that. I forgot how cute she was. I forgot how interesting this is. I forgot about this music. Yeah, really great. So, so the series three, two, one contact ran for seven seasons. |
Jon | And as you guys both mentioned started in 1980 and ran through 1988. Now it was on PBS, yeah and it was the brainchild of a gentleman named Samuel Gibbon Jr. |
Jon | He’d been an executive producer for the Electric Company over at the Children’s Television Workshop from 71 through 77. |
George | okay |
Jon | So he had a basis in doing children’s educational format, but whereas Electric Company might have skewed a little younger, and that might be something you know more Mo, because it was in the 70s, you know, rather than the 80s, but this guy, he had a pedigree doing that stuff. |
Mo | Hmm. |
Jon | And he based it on an original show out of Australia called The Curiosity Show. |
Mo | Hmm. |
George | Okay. |
Jon | Now, it was a little different. |
George | Ah. |
Jon | um It was a science based show. It’s educational. It had been running since 1972. But what it was was a little more like adults talking to kids, like interesting, entertaining adults and real scientists talking to kids about science stuff. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | But what Gibbon wanted to do um with sheve with children’s television workshop was make a version using American scientists as presenters, just like they had done in Australia, but PBS didn’t think that middle-aged scientists would really be of interest to a young audience in the US. So instead they said, if they’re going to do a science show, they need to be hosted and presented by young people. And they nailed that. |
George | Yeah, I think that is the big hook for people of our age range. John and might’ve, you know, gotten Mo on board. You know, he was very close to that thing. Had he um been able to see it a little bit more having people that. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | They were older than me, but they didn’t feel older than me, right? |
Jon | No, no. |
George | Like they felt a little bit closer to peers more than authority figures. And having them talk to me about stuff that I didn’t even know I was interested in until they started talking about whatever subject it was, was fascinating because we’ll talk about some of the segments and stuff later. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
George | But I think what I enjoyed the most was you go back and you look at some of those old shows, you know Sesame Street or Electric Company, everything, they all feel like they’re inside a room. |
Jon | Right on a studio in a set. |
George | But this show went into the field. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | They went and talked to people on the street. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Mo | Hmm. |
George | They went to places and visited and learned about the subject matter that was at that place. It felt like it was not just a science show, but also a world exploration exploration show. |
George | I can’t even say the word right now because I’m getting tongue tied thinking about it. It was just fun and it expanded Not only my knowledge of science, but also my knowledge of what things were out there in the real world around me that I didn’t see in my everyday life. |
George | Maybe. |
Jon | I could not agree with you more. There was something, those other shows were skits and they were fun. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | You know, they were puppets on a set or they were actors on a set or whatever. |
George | Right. |
Jon | And this show, it actually changed over time. And we we could get a rabbit hole like a la Super Friends about how it changed over the years. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | We won’t do all that. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | but it often was like on a set with these kids talking about something and they’re like, well, that reminds me of this thing. I went out and saw such and such, it relates to, and then you, they’re out in the world doing something related to the topic of science. And that’s the thing that pulled me in over and over. I’m like, oh, that guy who I already like. |
Jon | Or that cute girl, Trini, by the way, that girl, she still does it for me. six Fortunately, we’re still the same age, just because she’s super cute. |
George | ah She was cute. |
Jon | ah And like, oh, that cute girl that I like, she’s going to go out and learn about you know about forces and magnet magnetism or whatever. And I’m going to learn through her as she’s learning. It was really cool. |
Jon | the The show broke ground in a number of ways. It was the first children’s science series to receive funds from the National Science Foundation. So a children’s series did. |
Jon | And it was the first to intentionally reflect the diversity of its audience by introducing viewers to scientists of different ethnic backgrounds. And we’ve talked about like the impact of like Michelle Nichols on you know aspiring scientists who are like, oh, I’d never seen a black woman in space or on TV not being a servant. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | And it led other people of color to find out they could do this. And they intentionally brought in scientists of all races and creeds to say, Anybody can be a scientist. Science is universal. |
Mo | Yeah, um, really on the history of how the show was created, it was, it struck me how this wasn’t something that was just thrown out there, thrown together. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | You know, it was, it was like a very intentional process where they did feedback and they tested things and they, they really. work to create ah a good show. |
Mo | you know And yes, when you watch it, and I watch those episodes, you can see it. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | it’s like <unk>s I hate the kind of comparison, it but kind of like the way, you know John, you help us organize the podcast. It’s organized. We kind of flow through things. |
Jon | Mm-hmm, here’s this segment, here’s this segment, sure. |
Mo | And the way you watch the show, I feel like it’s like it’s moving. |
George | Right. |
Mo | It has a pace. It’s moving the correct way, the covering the topics. So it was it was just a well-crafted show, it just seems. |
Jon | Yeah, it doesn’t meander, ah but it also doesn’t feel rushed. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | Like you the kids are hanging out in their clubhouse and then they’re like, oh, let’s go do this thing. And then they come back to the clubhouse and regroup. And there might be a little story they’re telling that episode, just just a small one. |
George | Yeah, a little through line that connected the segments together based on the subject of the episode, right? |
Jon | Mm-hmm. |
Mo | Mm-hmm. |
Jon | Yeah, that’s right. |
George | I appreciated that so much not realizing that’s what was happening when I was watching it as I was younger. Now that I’m older and I’ve watched I think like 10 of the episodes back now at this point, you can see to Mo’s point, the thoughtfulness that was put into not just, you know, let’s go do this interview with this interesting person over here, or let’s go talk about these types of things over there. It was the thoughtfulness of how do these things all relate together? How can we relate them to the presenters that can then relate it to the audience so that |
George | We hear oftentimes, John and Mo, that people write into our show and they say something along the lines of, it feels like a room that I’m a part of the show and I could sit and talk with these three guys about the stuff they’re talking about. |
Jon | Huge compliment. Yeah, love when they say that. |
George | That’s what 321 Contact did with those presenters. |
Jon | Yep. |
George | And that was, you know, back in 1980, so 45 years ago at this point. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | To most point, it was brilliant. And I’m glad that they took the time to plan it out as opposed to just, well, we got to throw something in the 5 PM slot today. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | You know, let’s see who’s in the studio and throw them in front of a camera. |
Mo | this is yeah |
Jon | Certainly not. And like you, I went back and rewatch several episodes and a couple of things, I won’t say surprise, one surprised me and one was gratifying. The surprising thing was how easy they are to watch. |
George | Mm. |
Jon | I’m like, well, I gotta watch four, five, six of these to make sure I remember. And before I knew it, I was seven deep. I’m like, these are so fun. |
George | Right. |
Jon | I gotta know the next one. I have to know what’s gonna, the continuation of this story that they started, cause they would span multiple episodes throughout the week. And the other thing that, I didn’t notice as a kid, but watching now is they introduced science topics in a simple way, but not talking down to kids. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | They’re expecting kids to elevate their thinking. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | You know, they’re not saying, OK, kids, you know how balls work, right? |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | It’s not like dipping down to the lowest common denominator, but it also wasn’t, you know, highfalutin language. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | It was like, well, think about how things work in your house and how the drain works, you know, and how things you can understand. |
George | Well, and just that phrasing that you use there, when other shows do that, they automatically separate themselves from the audience. When they say, okay, kids, now we’re separate things. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | I’m the adult. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | You’re the kid. You’re listening to me. They didn’t do that with a show. You just were interjected. One of the things that I love and ah we’re jumping the gun. We need to get to the next section of the podcast, but |
Jon | We’re about to. |
Mo | Yeah, let’s jump over here. |
Jon | Yep. |
George | When they started talking about the segments that they were going to have on that show, they would say things like, did I ever tell you about the time I did this? |
Jon | Yes. Yeah. They’re telling stories about it. |
George | That’s a buddy telling you a story, not an adult presenting something to you that you might need to remember for a test. |
Mo | since |
Jon | Yep. |
Jon | Nope. It was like, my friend told me this story about this scientific thing, coincidentally, and that, yeah, yep, yeah. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | When the show premiered back in January 14th, 1980, one reviewer who I couldn’t agree with more called it zippy, hip, and the kind of show that would interest adults as well as eight to 12 year olds. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | And I’ll tell you, as an adult now, 50 plus years old, I had a great time watching those shows with concepts I already knew, but it was entertaining to watch anyway, which is really cool. |
George | Sure. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | So yeah. Okay. George, as you said, we have so much more to talk about. These things were chomping at the bit till we get back. We’re going to talk about the structure of the show and the kind of segments that were presented. Stick around. |
Jon | I think for a lot of people who remember fondly three, two, one contact for them, the beginning of that memory comes from that Pavlovian response when you hear the theme song and it’s, it changed a little bit over the years. So I pulled the cleanest version that I could find and I’m going to play it for you here. It’s an entirety. It’s only like 30 seconds long, but, uh, if this doesn’t put a smile on your face or nostalgia, then you’re Mo you’re too old. You can’t appreciate it. That’s your problem. So here we go. |
George | when everything happens ands contact it’s the reason everything happens contact let’s make contact key change |
Jon | rock guitar. Mm hmm. I’m getting chills. I love that song. |
George | It’s not just the song though. The song is awesome. I agree with you 100%. You hear it, it automatically evokes a more innocent and wondrous time for me. |
George | And I’m sure anybody else who was a fan of the show, it does the same for them. |
Jon | Right. |
George | But the video clips that they put with the song, at the start of the show are just as important to me. |
Jon | Oh, yeah. Yep. |
George | And I didn’t realize it until I started watching the episodes back again, how important those clips are. You got the water drop hitting the pond, you got the frog eating the worm, all those different little clips that are, you know, just like these little segments that keep pushing the point home that contact is everything is the, |
Jon | That’s the point. |
George | Now, it’s not that this show was only about that one particular thing, like things contacting in each other. that’s Not at all. Even the first episode wasn’t just about things touching each other. |
Jon | No. |
George | but It made me want to make contact with that show every afternoon that it was on. |
Jon | Oh, yeah. |
George | Just that series and those videos, all of that song, everything made me want to sit down there. And I felt like I was a part of that show. |
George | I wasn’t in the show. I wasn’t a little kid or anything, ah but I felt like I was because the way that song set the stage that followed in every episode after |
Jon | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah, what’d they say? |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Zippy and hip? This song is, right? |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | You have the little rock guitar in there, you got the vocals that are excited and then… |
George | Yeah. Completely different from things like Sesame street or any of the Mr. |
Jon | Right. |
George | Rogers did it it in a fuck all that shit. |
Jon | Sunny days. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | This was. |
Mo | Well, different age group, too. I mean, they were not, you know, but um but one thing I noticed watching shows I unlike like the normal science programs that used to see like the Mr. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah, it’s true. |
Mo | Wizard, which we’re going to later, which basically was a guy up there doing experiments and talking about it, you know, |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | Right. |
George | Which are cool, but |
Mo | Yeah, which is fine. They had their place, but this one seemed like it’s more like immersive. Like it seemed like they did all these different formats. They had skits and cartoons and they had these little, little documentary shorts and, you know, all just, but they all focus on one theme, but they just presented it in all different. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Jon | They all connected, right? |
Mo | Yeah. They just kind of presented them in different ways, which I think probably help help kids, especially absorb this stuff. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Right. Right. |
Mo | Cause seeing something in different ways really helps. |
Jon | if you Pardon the pun, they all contacted the subject in a different way from a different angle sometimes, right? |
George | Yeah. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. ah You know, we talked about how initially they suggested maybe it would be adult scientists. But so the show’s consultants or writers wondered if there are ways to make the show cooler. |
Jon | Had it a little more hip, you know? ah So they looked at the popularity of Mork and Mindy. And with Robin Williams in mind, I thought maybe they get like a zany host with that kind of appeal. |
Mo | Oh, geez. |
Jon | Or maybe they get like a teen idol like Sean Cassidy or or Alan Alda from MASH or something, right? |
Mo | Oh, geez. |
George | What?! |
Jon | they Right. It’s just an adult figure. And they even thought about bringing in Henry Winkler from Happy Days as like this recurring, consistent host of the show. |
Mo | Hey. |
Jon | Like he would be the one guiding the kids kind of thing. However, Moe nailed this. |
Mo | However. |
Jon | He talked about in this article that I think we both read probably, the research showed that children wanted multifaceted scientific role models, not talking heads. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | So instead of hiring a main celebrity, they sprinkled cameos throughout the show as little snippets like, yo, we have these cool hit people, but they’re not the stars of the show. |
Mo | Right. |
George | Well, you want to talk about celebrities. I always love to do the celebrity list when we have one of these types of podcast episodes out there. |
Jon | Mm. |
George | ah The celebrities that littered the 3-2-1 contact play field are as diverse as you can imagine. So you’re talking about people like Robert Guillaume. Now he’s probably only going to be familiar to a group of people who watch shows in the 70s and 80s. |
George | Sarah Jessica Parker, though, she’s way more popular. You know, we got the Sex and the City star. ah But we’ve got cast people from Eight is Enough. We’ve got Don Most in this thing. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
George | Gene Wilder, comic genius that he is or was. |
Mo | Uh. |
George | ah Carl Weathers, who was one of my favorite actors of all time, super popular from Rocky and a whole bunch of action stuff. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | Rita Moreno, great actress of TV and ah stage. |
Mo | Mm hmm. West Side Story. |
Jon | Yeah, was I through? |
George | Even the Harlem Globetrotters, because I guess their Scooby-Doo episode got canceled that week or something, maybe, right? |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | If you’re on Scooby Doo, why not be on 3, 2, 1, God dang. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | And the band Kiss makes an appearance in three, two, one contact. Now, I don’t know if they were contacting Gene Simmons’ tongue or if they were contacting something else, but. |
Mo | Oh, geez. |
Jon | ah i I think I read they were talking about like sound and they’re talking about the musical instruments or something, like some kind of way to connect it back. |
George | Right. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. There was an early episode that I watched and I saw, uh, Bowser from Sean on that greaser show. |
Mo | Oh, my God. |
George | Well, I saw Bowser and the lead singer from Shanana and I recognize both of them because my parents loved Shanana. |
Jon | Yes. yu Yep. Yep. |
George | We watched it every week and I loved the people in it. Bowser, of course, was, you know, he was definitely the star of that. But it was so funny. They did little interstitial segments in between other segments. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | Mhm. |
George | Some of them were comedy-based. Well, actually, kinda all of them were comedy-based, at least the ones I saw, but… |
Jon | Most of them, yeah. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | yeah |
George | I mean, it was so fun to have those little breaks, those little interstitials. It reminds me of when I watch a show like Superstore today, how you go from one storyline to another and the little interstitial in between is like a shopper, like changing their baby’s diaper in the middle of the aisle and then putting the dirty diaper on those. |
Jon | Mm-hmm. |
George | That’s what these interstitials were like. They were like these little 10 second breaks. in between segments that I cared about that made me stay watching the show because this is on PBS, no commercials. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah. mean Something just made me think of, George, is that the celebrities, the adults were in these little throwaway comedy bits. |
George | Right. |
Jon | The meat and potatoes of the show was right back to these young teens. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | So they treated the adults or the adults doing adult things. We’ll see them, but we’re gonna go back to the show now, which is the kids, which kept that focus on these young hit people that you wanted to hang out with. |
Jon | It was, and they would, oh, a myriad of topics and would just be one episode. As I said, sometimes it would run a week or two on one general topic. ah So here’s are some examples of little mini series they ran throughout the course of seasons. ah Noisy and quiet. So we talk about sound waves and stuff like that. And, you know, how sound works and that kind of thing. ah Forces, growth and decay was a series. Fast, slow. |
Jon | So you can imagine have a chance to go to a racetrack or go to, you know, a syrup factory or something because it flows slow or whatever they would, whatever they connect with. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | That would be an interesting but connect back to the topic of communication, food and fuel, hot and cold, light and dark, near and far order and disorder. Those are getting into like some physics level things. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | but they delved into them and talked about them on a level, again, not stooping down, but on a level kids could understand if they just elevated their thinking a little bit. And I remember super digging it. |
Mo | Yeah, it definitely seemed like in later seasons, they, they definitely expanded that range, like not quite as like black and white kind of stuff. |
Jon | Mm. |
Mo | Like they talk about flight and senses, space, you know, like these big topics, electricity, you know, architecture, you know, which I guess maybe after, you know, the first season was kind of like maybe figuring it out. |
Jon | Mm-hmm. |
George | Sure. |
Mo | And then as they got, they went along, they said, okay, we could do, you know, we think we can handle these topics now. |
Jon | Mm hmm. Yeah. |
George | Well, and you got to do different things as you move along. I mean, like we said, it lasted for what, like seven, eight seasons or whatever. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | And I appreciate so much something that they did in the early seasons that reminded me of another ah afternoon favorite of mine as a kid, Reading Rainbow. |
George | And it was the way they previewed the segments before the main show took off. Like it was a whole bunch of quick little clips, especially early on in the first seasons of, Did I tell you, like I was saying earlier, did I tell you about the time I went to see Shamu? |
Mo | Hahaha. |
George | And did I tell you about the time that I visited deaf kids at a school? And did I tell you about the time that blah, blah, blah? |
Mo | it |
George | And it was all, the and every time they would do that, it was one of the hosts in like a little quick, like five second little clip. And they would move to the, o and they would preview like, I don’t know, 10 or 15 things that were going to be, and that, |
George | That made me want to keep watching the show. |
Jon | Hmm. |
George | I hate shows today that do that. I don’t know why, but I don’t like pawn stars today on pawn stars. |
Mo | Really? Oh. |
George | I hate that shit, but this show made me want to keep watching it. And it was because they did that thing like reading rainbow would do where it would be this kid, I’m going to talk about blah, blah, blah book. |
Jon | Yes. |
George | And, Oh, I loved, I loved the way they did that. |
Jon | That calls right back to what Moe was talking about, which is it had a clear structure. It didn’t drag, it didn’t rush, but they knew what they were going to do. They laid it out for you almost in a, almost in like a news fashion, like on today’s show, we’re gonna do this and this, but it’s not talking head on today’s show. |
Jon | Like you said, it’s the kid that tell you about the time I wrote a roller coaster and find out how they were made. Like, no, you didn’t tell me like I’m dying to see about that. |
George | it |
Jon | It kept you engaged. |
Mo | Yeah, and I know they rotated hosts out periodically. and was it Do you think it was because of like they wanted to get kids that looked the right age and maybe the other people aged out? |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | I’m not sure the reasons behind it, but I know they, and maybe to keep it fresh also, I mean, who knows, but I know they definitely rotated through it. |
Jon | I’m sure that’s part of it. |
Mo | I think about a dozen hosts over the life of the show. |
Jon | Mm hmm. Yeah. And then there were there were people that had segments, too, that they were only in those segments and special bits, too. |
George | Well, mm hmm. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | You know, the the original three that we saw in those first seasons, Mark, Lisa, and Trini. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
George | Number one, John, Trini was not her name, by the way. |
Jon | Trini. |
George | That was the character name. |
Mo | No. |
Jon | That was the character’s name. |
Mo | Yes. |
George | Yeah, her name was… |
Jon | That’s the only way she exists in my universe. I know. |
George | Right? Her name was Jenny Ortiz. ah Lisa, her first name was Liz, so very close. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | But ah the guy who played Mark, his name was Leon Grant. And I just bring him up because he was also in another one of my old favorite things from the 80s. Do you guys remember when hip-hop movies were super popular in the mid-80s because that was a trend? |
Jon | Sure. Like break in and stuff like that. |
George | Yeah, breakdancing stuff. |
Jon | Huh? |
George | He was in Beat Street, the Ray Don Chong movie that that premiered the acting career of Ice-T. |
Jon | Oh, was he? |
Mo | Oh, really? |
Jon | Really? |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Did he dance in that? |
Mo | Interesting. |
Jon | Cause he seemed very athletic. Like he can move. |
George | If I remember right, I think he was one of the main characters that was like a DJ in the movie. |
Jon | Really? |
George | i have I need to go back and watch it, to but yeah, he was in that and I loved looking because these people didn’t have storied careers, most of them, as they moved through life. |
Jon | Oh, that’s cool. |
Mo | No. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Like they did this one thing for PBS. And they didn’t really do a whole lot after that. |
Jon | yeah |
George | They, you know, had a couple of little bit segments here and there. So maybe they got a little typecast into the PBS bubble, but God bless them. They had me watching every day and I’m going to go back and watch these episodes again. |
George | I would love to get an opportunity to talk with any of those people to find out what their experiences were like being a part of three, two, one contact. |
Jon | Yeah, yeah. |
Jon | Yeah, it wasn’t a death sentence for the careers of all of them. it wasn’t None of them become big stars that I knew of, but I did read that a couple of them appeared in the Warriors, ah not like stars, but they were in it. |
George | Right. |
George | Mm-hmm. Yeah. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | Yep. |
Jon | you know So so if if anything, it gave them a doorway in, I would think, to some career, if they didn’t become superstars. |
George | Right. |
Jon | but ah So one of the my favorite segment that I have to talk about wasn’t any of the hosts. It was this separate segment that ran with the popularity of Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys and stuff like that. They had the bloodhound gang. This usually ran at the end of the show. It was usually multi-parted part one, the case of the whatever, right? And like the three, two, one contact theme, I got to play. It’s a really quick theme. Here it goes. This is also going to give me chills. Here we go. |
George | ah The Bloodhound Gang. We’ve got the time. |
George | Till you played that, I completely forgotten about it. |
Jon | George and I are dancing, right? George and I are dancing. Moe is shrugging. |
George | Oh man. |
Jon | He’s like, I don’t know. |
Mo | ah Sounds like a new sitcom song. |
George | We’re the Bloodhound Gang. |
Jon | But it was, it was these three separate characters and it was very, if I remember, it was kind of Remington steelish in that there was supposed to be an adult running it, but there wasn’t, right? |
George | Sure. |
Jon | And so someone would call with a case and they would go, Bloodhound gang, Mr. Bloodhound is not here right now, what can I help you with? |
George | Right. |
Jon | And the kids were the actual runners of the investigation organization called the Bloodhound gang. And there never was an adult, they just made it up. |
George | e |
Jon | And they would go off and it would it was very light, fair mystery, like, you know, who broke Mrs. Whitaker’s fence or, you know, whatever. |
George | Right. |
Jon | And they would use clues and use science to solve it. So it fit very well. |
George | Yep. |
Jon | It didn’t always perfectly dovetail with the topic. Like maybe we’re talking about gravity and that might not be the topic of the Bloodhound gang, but it was almost like um Oh, like the an electric company, they had the, ah they had the Spider-Man segments, or they had the, what’s, MathNet, MathNet, you know, had those guys that were like dragnet people. |
Mo | Right. |
George | Right. |
Mo | Yep. |
Jon | This was like that. It was almost its own little show within the show. And it was a reason, like, I was gonna come back to see, I might come back and watch the next episode about, you know, light and dark, but I’m gonna be there to see the next episode of the Bloodhound gang, because they left me hanging at the last one. |
Jon | It’d be two or three parts long. |
Mo | That’s pretty clever. |
Jon | I love that. Yeah, it was fun. |
George | You know. Before we get out of the segment, I just wanna do one thing and give some recognition to a part that we’ve glossed over a little bit here and there, we’ve mentioned it. |
George | And that’s the Children’s Television Workshop, this production group that produced almost all of these PBS series from back in the day. |
Mo | Oh yeah. |
George | We don’t have anything like that right now, as far as I know. I mean, maybe there’s a Children’s Television Workshop that’s still in existence producing new stuff. I don’t think there is, or at least I haven’t seen it. There is something to be said for the way that that group of producers and creatives came up with all these different shows that aired on PBS throughout the country and throughout the nation. |
George | to hit certain demographics to provide positive and beneficial entertainment to kids when at a time when arguably the big three networks only thought of us as an avenue to our parents wallets, right? |
Mo | Yeah, consumers. |
Jon | Mm hmm. Right. |
George | dukes of hazard, we’re going to put that on and the kids are going to want to buy the orange cars or whatever. |
Jon | Southern toys. Yep. |
George | We’re going to put the Hulk on and the kids are wanting to go by Hulk lunchboxes and stuff. We’re going to do Saturday morning cartoons and the kids are going to tell mom, buy this cereal for me, blah, blah, blah. |
George | That’s all they cared about. Children’s television workshop and PBS, they felt like they cared about me and making me better. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | giving me knowledge, growing me as like almost a surrogate parent figure. And I can only imagine that a lot of latchkey children maybe had things go way more positively in their life than they should have based on their environments because of what children’s television workshop produces. |
Jon | Hmm. |
Jon | Yeah, I’ve seen a number of documentaries about, not CTW in particular, but Sesame Street in general and the Henson’s and things like that and how that overlap happens. And the really, I think the reason they did so well is because it wasn’t TV people, I should say its it wasn’t just TV people, and it wasn’t just educators. It was those two groups together in a room. |
Jon | saying, okay, educators, how do we get kids to watch and enjoy this? How do children learn? How is it that they, so it was actually talk to the people that know how to educate kids and talk to people that know how to do TV and go, where’s the overlap? |
Jon | How can we do something together that makes sense? And I think CTW maybe is still around. It’s evolved into the Sesame Workshop or the Sesame Corporation. |
Mo | The Sesame Workshop. Yeah, the Sesame Workshop. |
George | Mmm Sure |
Jon | Yeah, yeah. But it’s, I mean, it’s a different world now, right? |
Mo | Same thing. |
Jon | Anybody can do content anywhere. Back then, If you weren’t on a major network, you couldn’t be on on on the air. So PBS was that avenue where they could do that without commercials, as you said, and it made for, yeah, latchkey kids got to see something that otherwise maybe they never found an interest in. |
Jon | maybe It might’ve started, I’m sure it started innumerable careers. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | People watching this thing going, oh, science is not just nerdy book stuff. It’s cool real world stuff. I want to know about science. And here you got a scientist, you know? |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | All right, when we get back, we’re going to talk a little bit about some of the other shows that kind of inspired 321 contact and how they connect. Hope you stick around. |
Mo | Now, obviously, 3-2-1 Contact was not the first science show out there. |
Mo | you know there there was a you know ah actually And the surprising was there weren’t that many. |
George | Alright, yeah. |
Mo | I went looking, see, how many were there yeah from the start of TV till then? It was like a handful of really science shows that were geared toward children. ah The first one was, of course, a classic called Watch Mr. Wizard. |
Mo | Now, this is started back in 1951 and went to 1965. |
Jon | Oh. |
George | Wow, that long. |
Mo | Yeah, and went to 1965, yep. |
Jon | I didn’t realize it was that old. Wow. |
George | Yeah. |
Mo | Um, and basically is a guy who did experiments using household items. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Mo | So kids can actually do these experiments at home and follow along. And they even did like a whole Mr. Wizard science club that you could belong to and do experiments in groups. |
George | Oh, yeah. |
Mo | At one point they thought they had a hundred thousand members and in that group across the United States in the 70s and 60s. |
George | Wow. |
Jon | In the 50s, first of all, who has a TV, |
George | Right, when there was maybe one TV per city at that point. |
Jon | Yes. Yeah. Wow. |
Mo | But so, I mean, obviously, but it was a great show. I mean, again, it was like, it was an older person talking to kids and it was, you know, and maybe 50, 60, maybe that was more appropriate. I don’t know. But then we move on to newer shows like The Electric Company, which was a part of the CTW, created that one. |
George | Hmm. |
Jon | Right. |
Mo | That was from 71 to 77. It ran for 780 episodes. |
George | Yeah, I believe it. |
Mo | I didn’t. |
Jon | I’ve probably seen 600 of them. |
Mo | When I saw that number, I was like, yeah, I know really. |
Jon | Yeah, I watched that a lot. |
Mo | so It was mostly based on reading grammar. That was really their focus. They did do science in it, but reading grammar is kind of their their bread and butter. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | um But the funny thing is like Morgan Freeman was a star in that one, you know, Rita Moreno. |
Jon | Yep. |
George | Right. |
Mo | I mean, they had a whole bunch of like people who went on to other careers from there. |
Jon | Morgan Freeman was like the mark on electric company. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | He was like the cool young athletic black guy who is, is there or like representative of somebody you don’t always see on TV, but he’s one of the mains. |
George | People who know Morgan Freeman now would never understand that description at all. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | Right, right. |
George | That is in no part his legacy at all. The young athletic black guy. |
Jon | He, he was like a, like a lanky hippie kind of guy with a big Afro. |
Mo | Oh |
Jon | And he was so cool on there. I remember. |
Mo | yeah. yeah |
Jon | And it it was, it was years and years later before I made the connection back that it was the same guy. |
Mo | Oh, it meet yeah, absolutely. |
Jon | I didn’t realize that. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. ah |
Mo | Absolutely. and Now a show I watched was Zoom. That ran from 71 to 78, 72 to 78. |
Jon | Oh, I’ll be Debbie. |
Mo | Now that one was, it was like a kid’s show. Like you kind of talk about, I think maybe B21 Contact got some of their stuff from them because Zoom only had kids on it. And all their content and everything was based on kids writing in |
George | Okay. |
Mo | and talking to them. So everything they did was, this thing was suggested by so-and-so from this city, and then they would talk about it, you know? |
Jon | Yes, yep. |
Mo | So it was, and it was like, again, another one science-based. |
Jon | Mo, I’m gonna test you. Do you remember the zip code to write into Zoom? |
Mo | Five, three, one, two, four. |
Jon | Just send it to Zoom. |
Mo | Just send it to Zoom. |
Jon | What is it? |
Mo | Is it five, three, one, two, four? |
Jon | Boston Masseau 2134. |
Mo | One, two, four. |
George | ah |
Jon | So interesting thing, I got to visit WGBH in Boston ah when I was working in television. |
Mo | Oh, really? |
Jon | And I got to touch the O, the big furniture that looked like ZOOM in their lobby. |
Mo | The big O. Yeah. |
Jon | They have one of the O’s that my kids would walk on and crawl around. |
George | Oh, wow. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | It’s sitting in the lobby. I could put my hand on one of those zoom, like big letter O’s that they use as prop. |
George | Wow. |
Jon | Yeah. Anyway, awesome. |
Mo | Wow, that’s pretty cool. |
Jon | Yeah. That’s fun. |
Mo | So let’s see, jumping forward, I see in 83, they came out with Mr. Wizard’s World, which was based on. |
George | ah Now, that’s the one I think I remember. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Oh, that’s what I’m thinking of. |
Mo | That was also, it was based on Mr. |
Jon | Okay. Yeah. |
Mo | Wizard. Same guy actually helped create that one. |
Jon | Hmm. |
Mo | Um, and it was a little bit more fast paced. |
Jon | Oh. |
Mo | They tried to, you know, because it was on Nickelodeon, but it was actually the number three TV show in 1983. |
George | Nickelodeon was around in 1983. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Hmm. |
George | What? |
Mo | It wasn’t Nickelodeon. |
Jon | Well, wait, not, was it that early? |
Mo | I’m sorry. No, I may have misread that one. |
George | ah You better fact check the shit out of that one, because I don’t think Nickelodeon came around until the 90s. |
Mo | Sorry. |
Jon | Maybe. |
Mo | I may have misread that one. |
Jon | Wait, no. |
Mo | Hold up. um I may have misread that one. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. |
George | AI fooled you a little bit on that one, I think. |
Mo | No, I didn’t use AI for this one. |
Jon | Oh, I think Beekman is on Nickelodeon maybe. |
Mo | Oh, maybe I get this mixed up. I apologize for that. |
Jon | Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t register with me until you said that. |
Jon | Yeah. Cause there was no cable, right? through through well I guess there was, but mid |
George | I mean, yeah, there’s cable in, we get cable like 84. |
Jon | eighties. Yeah. |
George | So it had to be cable had to be around before that because Tallahassee wouldn’t have got it first. That’s for damn sure. |
Jon | No. |
Mo | Oh, 83. OK, this is what Wikipedia. So Wikipedia was actually wrong then, because that’s what it says. |
Jon | Oh, let’s see. |
Mo | It’s shown three times a week on Nickelodeon. |
Jon | Oh, it may be shown three times a week, maybe even not when it originally aired. |
Mo | ah It says on Nickelodeon. |
George | Okay. So, so we need to leave all of this in the episode, by the way, because this sometimes happens guys. |
Jon | Maybe that’s what it is. |
Mo | But maybe again, that’s. |
Jon | Oh, no, no. |
George | We do research on the fly when we see something. |
Jon | Nickelodeon started December 1st, 1977. |
George | It’s weird. |
Mo | Actually, nicklodean started seventy seven Nickelodeon Nickelodeon started in 77. |
George | It’s 79 Nickelodeon started. |
Jon | Holy crap. |
George | Yeah. Well, I see they launched as a cable show for children in 79. |
Jon | Oh, Moe was right. |
George | Holy shit. |
Mo | So I would never, I would, I would have lost money on that bet. |
George | Nickelodeon has been around since the seventies. |
Jon | I had to bet money against that. |
George | That would have been the who wants to be a millionaire question. |
Jon | Yep. |
George | It would have sent me packing a hundred percent. |
Mo | Yep. |
Jon | Mm-hmm. |
George | Cause I would never would’ve asked for help on that fucker. |
Mo | Yeah, me neither. |
Jon | Because you’d be like, well, I know it’s not the 70s, so let’s pick, right? |
George | Right. Exactly. |
Mo | I’ll count that one up. So now that we had that discussion, we now know that Mr. Wizard’s World was an early Nickelodeon show that started in 19, you know, so. |
George | ah ah |
Mo | But again, it was just like, it was the same thing, single person doing experiments, but it was a little faster. Then we had Beekman’s world. |
George | Right. Yeah. |
Mo | That one started in 92 to 97. And that was like, I think they kind of went that Robin Williams thing that you were talking about before. They went for like the zany, weird scientist and doing funny experiments. |
Jon | ah Yeah. |
George | ah |
Jon | Very zany. |
Mo | And just, you know, it was like, I actually watched a couple of episodes when I saw this, just to familiarize myself with it. And it just looked like a freaking acid trip. I just was like, there’s just no way. |
George | You know, whoever produced that show missed out. |
Mo | Why? |
George | They should have had that show concept done with Doc Brown. That would have attracted an audience. |
Jon | but |
Mo | Oh, yeah, absolutely. |
Jon | Doc’s World. Well, it was the 90s. Everything was over the top and awesome and and neon and |
Mo | Yeah, true. |
George | Yeah, but doc Brown doing crazy zany experiments. |
Jon | Oh yeah. Oh yeah. |
George | Hell I’d have been watching that shit to hell with my kids. |
Mo | And then let’s, we rounded up with Bill Nye, the science guy, uh, 90, 93 to 98. |
George | Of course. Yeah. |
Mo | Um, this one actually, cause my kids watched it and I would watch it with them because I think he was able to do something that was very difficult was being an adult that related to kids. |
Jon | Yep. |
Mo | Like he didn’t talk down at all. I think he just, he just talked to them, you know, and the stuff he talked about too was like super interesting. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | Hmm. |
Mo | So, you know, he was kind of, he’s still around today is still, you know, talking about science and trying to get kids involved. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Hmm. |
George | Today, he’s not talking down to kids anymore. |
Jon | Did he? |
George | He or ever. He’s talking down to Congress now. |
Mo | Yes, exactly. He’s talking to the politicians. |
Jon | Didn’t I see Bill Nye just got like a presidential medal of freedom or something? I think he was just awarded that just the other day. |
Mo | Yeah. He might’ve, yeah, it definitely could have. |
Jon | Yeah. For all his work. |
Mo | So, but again, so really my that list is pretty much most of the kids science shows that have been out there. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Mo | There haven’t been a lot, you know, maybe now there’s probably something on discovery. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | yeah |
Mo | I’m certain that there’s some other ones there, but nothing that really kind of tries to hit the general population and really help kids. |
Jon | for kids. Yeah, they add 321 contact to the list. |
George | Mm. |
Jon | And that’s, that’s, that’s the list kind of I think you’re right. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Yep. Okay, when we get back one more segment, we’re going to talk a little bit more about kind of the legacy of and our memories of 321 contact. So stick around, we’ll be right back. |
Jon | All right. |
Jon | There we go. All right. ah So I can grab this last one because I just found that I think it’s a nice way to get out. |
Jon | Anybody want to talk about the over 7 million, whatever? |
Mo | I’ll do that because that’s like just raw facts. |
Jon | Okay. |
Mo | It’s because they didn’t watch the show. |
Jon | Okay, all right. George, you mentioned the classroom contact. I didn’t do any more reading about it. Can you talk about it or do you know what it is? |
George | Yeah, yeah, that’s fine. |
Jon | Okay, or just mention there was contact extra and this, just do those two together maybe. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Is that okay? |
George | ah Yeah, sure. |
Jon | Okay, all right. |
George | I don’t know much about contact extra, though. |
Jon | that Just gloss over that one. There was this and there was this thing and talk just about that. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Mo does the, all that stuff. |
George | Sure. |
Jon | And then I can do this one as kind of an outro because it speaks to their, they’re intent to make sure everybody could copy it and whatever. So then they’ll wrap it up. Okay. Should we, do we want to have, did we do enough elsewhere? |
Jon | Do we want to do anything where we just talk about our memories or we pretty much touched on that? I don’t have anything else to say. |
Mo | Maybe talk about what we liked about it, maybe or something like that. I don’t know. |
Jon | You do one more little round Robin. |
Mo | I’m just doing something out there. |
Jon | Is there, do you have something to say, George? |
George | Yeah, that’s fine. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Okay. |
George | Yeah, we can do something like that. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Just to round it up real quick. |
Jon | Most liked. And I can and I’ll start with you because I’ll say now that you have seen some of it, bla blah, blah, bla blah, blah, blah. |
Mo | Yeah. Yep. |
George | Time to wind up this episode with a little bit about the legacy, maybe some of our memories of 321 Contact, even though we’ve kind of basically been doing that the entire show so far because John and I had such a love for the show. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Jon | More memories. |
George | ah There were some extra things in the 321 Contact universe. ah There was 321 Contact Extra, ah which won a Peabody Award for an episode about a kid with AIDS, which was obviously a very controversial tub subject during that time. |
Mo | Wow. |
George | ah But the thing that probably is the most directly related ah thing to what the producers of the show really wanted is a series called 321 Classroom Contact. |
Mo | Mm. |
Jon | Huh. |
George | ah the The reason why, John, you can’t find 321 Contact on DVD |
Jon | Mm-hm. |
George | is because the creators of the show only wanted it on VHS because they wanted ah these teachers to be able to distribute, copy, and edit these shows for their classrooms for these kids. |
George | um And fuck, I just realized I took your fucking thing, sorry. |
Jon | That’s okay. That’s all right. No, just continue. |
George | How do we back out of that? |
Jon | i could I’ll riff off of that when I get down there. |
George | Yeah. Well, just let me back out of it. I’ll start over. |
Jon | Okay. ah Okay. |
George | Because that’s directly what 321 Contact was all about. |
Jon | Okay. |
George | ah classroom contact rather. 5-4-3. The thing that most directly relates to 3-2-1 contact though is probably 3-2-1 classroom contact. |
George | ah John, I know ah you found out a little bit more about the reason why that thing exists. |
Jon | Hmm. |
Mo | Mm hmm. |
Jon | Yeah, it was the concept behind the producers of 321 Contact obviously was to get science in the hands of kids in the minds of kids. And they never released the show on DVD, but a lot of it exists on VHS because the creators were adamant that educators be encouraged and feel free to record, copy, share, and redistribute the the episodes with their classes with no fear of copyright enforcement. |
Mo | he That’s pretty cool. |
Jon | That was part of the mission statement. And so getting it into classrooms was what they wanted to do. It wasn’t, yeah, I mean, you gotta make money, but they were under a grant, right? The money they needed to make, they had. |
Mo | Right. |
Jon | It was about producing the new episodes. They just wanna make sure everyone who could benefit from it saw it. And that goes back to that CTW mentality. You don’t necessarily have that much these days. |
Mo | Yeah, really. I mean, he was reported in 84. This show had an audience of over seven million viewers. |
George | Mmm. |
Jon | Mm. |
Mo | That’s that’s crazy. |
George | Mmm. |
Mo | I mean, and in 26 countries, so I guess they did translations or something. |
Jon | Mm-hmm, yeah, dubbing. |
Mo | But um but I guess I mean, but science, right? Science doesn’t change no matter where you are. It’s it’s the same. So it seems like it would work. |
Jon | Yeah. Yeah, we might learn more about it, but you know, gravity in Germany is the same as the gravity in Australia, right? |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | Unless you’re a flat earther, then science changes. |
Jon | It’s slightly different. |
George | We’re going to get people hating us and I can’t support this show because they talked about flat earth now. |
Jon | What? |
Jon | ah Well, sorry to have lost you, but oh well. |
Mo | yeah this was |
Jon | We’re just not going to see eye to eye on the flat earth. I’m sorry. Before we get out of this episode, now that we have rewatch some or in most cases, watched some three, two, one contact again, looking back and seeing it in its totality and what it is. |
George | e |
Jon | I mean, we all just reminisce on slivers of it. What do you find that you like most about it or remember best about it? Well, why don’t we start with you because it’s kind of freshest for you. |
Mo | Yeah, um one thing that struck me when i watched this I watched the episodes is that like George said earlier, they don’t talk down at all, you know which it’s it’s very easy for science programs to do that. |
George | Mm hmm. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | Even science programs for adults, you sometimes they’re talking down to people. |
George | Right. |
Mo | you And it seemed like and I was watching. I’m like, wow, I said if I felt a little bad, I was like, wow, I wish I was a little bit younger and watch this because I totally would have watched like watch every single one of these episodes because I watched one about sound. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Mo | That was one of the ones I watched specifically. And they were talking about, you know. |
Jon | Mm hmm. |
Mo | decibels and you know when it comes damaging and but but the way they did it it wasn’t like this abstract thing like wasn’t the scale if they said this jackhammer is doing this many decibels and it will hurt your ear you know right |
Jon | Right. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Right. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Something a kid can relate to. |
George | It wasn’t like, it wasn’t like a cigarette commercial kids don’t smoke cigarettes. Cause it’s going to, it was, it related the subject to stuff that you dealt with every day. |
Jon | who |
George | Mo grew up in New York. I’m sure you had to deal with Jackhammer noise. |
Mo | Oh, yeah. Oh, constantly, you know, and even talk to somebody who wasn’t wearing hearing protection, but should, you know, I mean, it was like, you know, it was just, like you said, it was just seemed very real, the kind of the stuff they portrayed, even though I know it was scripted, it just seemed very real. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Right. |
Jon | yeah |
Mo | So they did a good job on that. |
Jon | Yeah, well, I think I already said Bloodhound Gang is my absolute favorite part. I gotta look and see if I can just chain those together in a playlist, just the Bloodhound Gang segments. ah But I like those aside from that, looking back, watching it now, what I didn’t realize watching it as a kid, we talked about several of these realizations, but how much what you said, George, how it felt like you were hanging out with these kids. And I think that’s probably what brought me back the most. The science was fascinating, |
Jon | But it was like, I want to see those friends again and see what they’re doing and what shenanigans they’re getting up to and what cool thing they got to go do today. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Cause I didn’t get to go do that. And like, whoops, I learned some science along the way. Gotcha, John. And it was, it worked on me. I loved it. Yeah. George, what about you? Most favorite part memory? |
George | Trini. |
Jon | yeah No, you can’t have her. Sorry. She’s mine. |
George | ah you You didn’t choose it. So your second bill, as far as I’m concerned now, I mean, in all honesty, uh, it was just the presentation of knowledge. |
Jon | okay |
George | I, I didn’t realize how hungry my brain was for knowledge at that age until I started thinking about this show for this podcast. I, I pride myself on trying to learn as much as I can about as many different subject as possible. |
George | John, when you and I were in that Star Trek club back in the nineties, 2000, whatever, uh, I used to love doing trivia things. Remember we used to host trivia at conventions and stuff. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Cause I love just the gathering of knowledge. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | I may not be able to act on it. I may not be able to do anything with it, but I just like knowing stuff and. |
Jon | Right. And I should say not just Star Trek trivia trivia in general, you were into. |
George | Right. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | Yeah. |
Jon | Yeah. That too, but yeah. |
George | And I just, ah yeah, I love three, two, one contact because it gave me knowledge at a young age in a way that didn’t feel like they were talking down to me. |
George | Like, we you know, ah there are people out there today who are brilliant scientists, Neil deGrasse Tyson, brilliant scientists. |
Mo | Hmm. |
George | I hate that fucker. Reason why I hate him is because in his interviews, he feels like he’s an asshole all the time. |
Mo | Doesn’t he? He kind of gives you that impression, doesn’t he? |
George | It comes off that way like he’s like. |
Jon | he’s He’s always kind of, he’s a gotcha guy. |
Mo | He’s cocky. |
Jon | He’s like, aha, I knew this, and you didn’t kind of thing. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | hi And he’s like kind of like doing this defensive thing all the time to refute whatever somebody else says, but in an asshole way, 321 Contact never did that with me. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | 321 Contact brought me in, made me a part of the knowledge experience and made me crave it even more. It was John, you talk about wanting all those bloodhound gangs in a list. |
George | It’s because the show is like potato chips. You can’t watch just one and walk away. |
Jon | One more, one more. |
George | You got to keep eating more and more. |
Jon | Yeah. |
George | I think any parent, even growing up today with young children who doesn’t put their child in front of some three, two, one contact is really missing an opportunity for that child to learn and develop. |
George | I’m not saying a two year old needs to be placed in front of YouTube for three, two, one contact, but an eight year old, |
Jon | Yeah, 10 year old. |
George | 100% put them in front of some three, two, one contact and let them just, let them just chew on all that knowledge because it’s in my opinion, one of the best presentations of scientific knowledge for young people that’s ever been done. |
Jon | Yeah. |
Jon | and Not only might they learn something, they might learn to love something in science, yeah. |
Mo | Yeah. |
George | Yeah. yeah |
Mo | So the question, um, is there a way to get, are there good copies of this show out there? Cause everything looks like VHS triple copy versions. |
Jon | No, I don’t think there are any official releases. It was all about please take it, please copy it to the point where they couldn’t justify releases because it was already freely available. |
George | Now. |
Jon | Who’d pay for it? |
George | Yeah, I mean you might find like beta masters in some vault somewhere at PBS or something, but I mean PBS wasn’t like the warehouse like a Warner Brothers was. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | But I would. Mm-hmm, maybe. you |
Mo | Yeah, they can keep stuff. |
George | They didn’t, you know, store that stuff. |
Jon | Right. |
George | They, you know, shit. |
Jon | Mhm. Yep. |
George | The only reason why we have all those, uh, all those paintings from, uh, from Bob is because his family started storing them in that warehouse. |
Mo | ah yeah |
Jon | Ah, three, two, one contact. Had a great time reminiscing about it, guys. Thank you, Mo. I hope you developed an appreciation for the show that you didn’t have before. |
Mo | Yeah. |
Jon | Sounds like you did. That is going to wrap it up for this edition of the backtrack. Don’t worry. We’ll be back in two weeks with no idea. Fucking into this part. I always forget that part. |
Jon | Before I leave you, I’d like to thank a couple more generous Patreon members who came on board just in the last few weeks. I wanna thank Zephyrson, great username, and Keith S who both headed over to patreon dot.com slash GenXGrownup opened up their wallets and opened up their hearts and said, we would like to support what you guys do at GenXGrownup to make sure you’re able to keep doing it without an undue burden on us. |
Jon | and we’re so thankful for you. You’re joining an amazing group of people who have supported us for years, and we’re grateful to have you along for the ride. If you’d like to join them again for as little as a dollar a month, head over to patreon dot.com slash Gen X grown up, and we’ll walk you right through it. |
Jon | We certainly appreciate it. That then is gonna wrap it up for this backtrack edition of the show. Don’t worry, we have another one coming in two weeks, and a regular edition of our show will be coming your way next week. |
Jon | Until then, I am John George. Thank you so much for being here, man. |
George | Yes, sir. |
Jon | Mo, you know I appreciate you, sir. |
Mo | Always fun, man. |
Jon | Fourth listener, it’s you. We all appreciate most of all, though, and we can’t wait to talk to you again next time. Bye bye. |
George | See you guys. |
Mo | Take care, everybody |